Six Years Old

 Happy Birthday, Annika! I can't believe I have a six-year old! Just like we did for Leila's birthday, we played the "favorite things" game, and here are some of her answers:

 Favorite food: pizza. But also ice cream and slurpees
Favorite treat: lollipops

 Favorite color: turquoise, magenta, green, pink and yellow
Favorite book: still remains "Julius, Baby of the World", a book by Kevin Henkes that Kerry P. gave to Annika on her first birthday (she grew into it!).

 Favorite thing to do in Hong Kong: Disneyland and Ocean Park
Favorite holiday (her idea): Christmas, Easter and Halloween

 Favorite subject in school: Art, and "when we get 'Golden Time'". 
Least favorite subject: math (they are doing subtracting up to 20 right now and she is finding it difficult)
Number of teeth lost: 5

 Favorite friends: Brigitta, Rachel, and Miyu
Favorite Bible story: Noah's ark

 Favorite restaurant: Ruby Tuesdays and Outback Steakhouse
Favorite movie: "Tangled' because it isn't scary

 Favorite TV show: Berenstain Bears
Least favorite sport: soccer. She does NOT enjoy playing soccer in PE. (too sweaty, too hard to score a goal) 
Sport she does like: swimming

 Favorite music: Animals- it's what puts her to sleep every night. She never even reaches the end of the album before she's in dreamland. 
Time that Annika leaves for school in the morning: 6:45 a.m. Totally crazy, but somehow she (and we) are managing. 

 What she misses most about Canada: the people- her grandparents, cousins and friends

 Countries this 6 year old has been to: Canada, USA, Mexico, Hong Kong, Macau, China and Indonesia. 

 Height: 48 inches. Looks like from her growth chart we have in her bedroom that she grew about four inches this last year. She's a tall girl, but surprisingly isn't the tallest in her class.
Weight: not sure, but somewhere in the 40-50 pound range, I think

Milestones from this year:

- learning to ride her bike this summer

- learning to read. She is starting to realize that she can read in her head (rather than read out loud to us) and will sit and read a book to herself.

- she can swim. I mentioned recently that she was starting to swim short distances, but she really can actually swim a decent distance in parts of the pool where she can't touch the bottom. It's her own type of doggy paddle, but for right now it works for her.

- starting to read/write/speak Mandarin. At a very very basic level, but still...

Happy 6th Birthday, Annika! You are a happy, adventurous, bright, and fun little girl. We love you so much! xoxo